‘The Last of Us’ Easter Egg in ‘Uncharted 3’ Was a Mistake, “We Screwed Up”

Naughty Dog has admitted they ruined the reveal for The Last of Us, when they accidentally left and Easter Egg in Uncharted 3, that referred to the new IP.

“We screwed up.”

Were the words spoke by The Last of Us creative director, Neil Druckmann, in a recent interview with Kotaku. The Last of Us was originally scheduled to be announced June 2011, but was delayed until December 2011. After the team “forgot” to remove the Easter Egg located in Uncharted 3.

The Easter Egg was a newspaper headline, directly referring to the deadly fungus that plays a major role in the world of The Last of Us.

“We walk back to the design pod,” recalled Druckmann, “and the designer who put it in comes up to me and he’s like, ‘I just want you to know, you approved it! You approved it.’ And I’m like, ‘Approved what?’ And then we went on NeoGAF or something and someone’s like, ‘There’s the newspaper there.’ I’m like, ‘Oh no, we’ve been found out.'”

Druckmann further explained many fans assumed Naughty Dog wasn’t behind the project, due to their team being known as a ‘one-game-studio’ after just shipping Uncharted 3.

“These games are so big, right?” added game director Bruce Straley. “They’re several hours long. Every single pixel has to be touched. Every animation is created from hand. It’s overwhelming. You can’t look over every detail. So this one little thing in the background, nobody’s thinking about that.”

So it seems even one of gaming’s most prolific development studios can make a mistake. The Last of Us will release worldwide June 14, exclusively on PlayStation 3.